Played correctly?

[Abednego]

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (8 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Preflop: Hero is Button with J/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, T/images/graemlins/club.gif.
<font color="666666">3 folds</font>, MP2 calls, <font color="666666">1 fold</font>, Hero calls, SB completes, BB checks,

Flop: (4 SB) K/images/graemlins/club.gif, J/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 9/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(4 players)</font>
<font color="CC3333">SB bets</font>, BB folds, MP2 calls, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises</font>, SB calls, MP2 calls.

Turn: (5 BB) Q/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="blue">(3 players)</font>
SB checks, <font color="CC3333">MP2 bets</font>, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises</font>, SB folds, MP2 calls.

River: (9 BB) 3/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
MP2 checks, <font color="CC3333">Hero bets</font>, MP2 folds.

Final Pot: 10 BB
<font color="green">Main Pot: 9 BB, won by Hero.</font>
<font color="green">Pot 2: 1 BB, returned to Hero.</font>

[jimswarthow]

Power poker at its finest. Very well done IMO. I would rather be betting with the second best straight now that its just 3 players. If played back at with a raise then I can reconsider but usually I autopilot call. I think you have to be aggressive in these spots. I love the flop raise.....Even if you didnt hit your hand, it may have been what won you the pot. NHS. I would also be cautious with that flop raise mentality. More sesoned players will easily pick up on it if you raise too often with second pair. Sometimes I will 3 bet a player who tries to buy too many free cards and takes the lead too often when he doesn't really have a raising hand. In other words If I find another TAG, and I think he/she may be semi bluffing were going to 3rd and 4th level thinking real fast cuz Im gonna pop him with some SB of my own.

[cold_cash]

I'd fold pre-flop.

[Abednego]

I was the button in an unraised pot ...... do you fold in this situation often?

[MoreWineII]

I'm either raising or folding here. I limp with this about 0% of the time in this situation.

[jimswarthow]

I didnt even consider the pre-flop issue of 10-Jo on the button. If the pot has not been raised you should be raising or folding here. Most often folding. More wine is right. I still love the post flop play as long as its an occasional situation. In other words don;t fall in love with getting cute. If you bet every thin draw like that with that board you will get worked by players like More wine11 who prey on the poor souls who do.

[cold_cash]

[ QUOTE ]
I was the button in an unraised pot ...... do you fold in this situation often?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah.

[Richard Berg]

I fold preflop. JTo is not something I want to play against 4 opponents with or without position.

I don't like the flop raise. You're not making anyone coldcall, and it's not for value. Setting up the villians to be scared on later streets is a nice idea, but not worth the investment (including the chance of a reraise). If anything, having you wake up when a bluff card falls would be scarier. You can't count on always getting a scary card that happens to help you /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[MicroBob]

i probably fold PF too.

[Guy McSucker]

I don't think raising a limper with offsuit trash is a particularly good play. You have the button anyway. What areyou hoping to achieve with a raise? You just inflate the pot when you're most likely behind.

If there were no limpers and the blinds were tightish, a raise would be fine.

There's no harm in mucking this preflop. I am not particularly enamoured of this call, but I don't think it hurts too much.

Flop raise is futile. Rest of the hand played well.

Guy.

[Nate tha' Great]

Limping is fine here. So is raising. And folding ain't bad either.

[Eihli]

I personally fold this preflop but I don't think any other action here would make someone a losing player. As for the flop, you raise hoping to get a Q to fold and clean up your T outs, maybe buy a free card on the turn, and you might be ahead. In a big pot these are good things, but this pot is just too damn small. My decision is to fold on the flop.

[scotnt73]

well played. id have played it exactly the same.

[Pirc Defense]

TJo and QJo are some of my more hated hands. They trap you, lead you on, then turn on you at the river. The situation has to be very favorable for me to play one of these hands. By favorable I mean a ton of folks limping in front of me. Or maybe 4-5 opponents limping, allowing me to complete the small blind. And of course you don't want any TAG's in the game when you play this type of hand.

[IndieMatty]

Question: What do you do when that Q does not hit?

[MoreWineII]

I think J-10o is a hand that most people on this board haven't come to a consensus on whether or not it performs better in a multi-way pot or with as few players as possible. Wasn't there a huge thread about this not too long ago?

Personally, I'd prefer to get at least one of the blinds out if I were to choose to play this hand. I really don't want to play this hand vs. 4 players. Therefore, it's raise or fold for me - probably fold as I don't particularly like J-10o. But it might depend some on what kind of player the limper was too.

[Shawsy]

I would play JTo from the button in an unraised pot most of the time, provided that I don't expect a raise from the blinds very often. Even so, seeing a flop with JTo from the button for one or two bets is not a bad deal in my opinion. Obviously this opinion isn't shared by everyone on this board.
I am not sold on the flop raise. Middle pair with a gutshot draw. None of your outs is sparkly clean. Q gives you second nuts, T gives you 2-pair but makes any Q a str8. The two J outs are probably good, provided that SB hasn't flopped a str8 already.
Raising is unlikely to get either SB or MP to fold. SB could always re-raise too. That might actually help you if it forces MP to fold, and cleans up some of your outs, but it also means you are likely behind. You might just be building the pot while you are behind with only a few good outs.
The flop raise could, however, buy you a free card if the turn misses you. So maybe the flop raise is not so bad.
Turn and river play is pretty standard.

[IndieMatty]

Maybe the questions is not seen down there...what do you do if you are unimproved on the turn? on the river?

I'm not a huge fan of this move, but I definitely seem to be in the minortiy.

[scotnt73]

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe the questions is not seen down there...what do you do if you are unimproved on the turn? on the river?

I'm not a huge fan of this move, but I definitely seem to be in the minortiy.

[/ QUOTE ]

on the flop you have 2 guys who are putting in 2 bets to your 1(total)
on the turn-check call(unimproved)if there were several guys still in id prob raise it up and build a huge pot
on the river check fold(this is what i would do unimproved)

[IndieMatty]

In Hero's case, theres three guys..the pot is $8! your 13-1..and you could be splitting with any other q who's already ahead...I think this is -EV over the long run, in fact I want to say, Hero got lucky with bad play... What am I missing?

[StellarWind]

It's not good to play this preflop situation by a rule. Consider your opponents and act accordingly.

Recently I folded QJo on the button with one limper. My tight/typical opponent had a better hand than me and there was no point getting involved.

This is not a raise-or-fold situation. This hand does not play at all well heads up. There is nothing wrong with minimizing expenses and hoping to flop a pair. The hand may be easier to play and protect when you do because the pot is smaller and your opponents' play more revealing. Here we know where we stand once the flop betting reaches us: behind with outs. If we had raised preflop, the play (ignore the turn queen) goes bet, bet, bet, get shown a king, damn these calling stations, "nothing I could have done" /images/graemlins/tongue.gif.

In this case the limper is at button+2. Folding without a read doesn't seem very enterprising. Raising is possible but it tends to commit you to betting the flop and maybe going beyond that. I'm not sure I like my hand that much.

With only two opponents our outs are not as bad as they look. Raising is strictly a free card play. It doesn't accomplish anything else. I would call for two reasons:

1. This is a marginal draw. Getting a free card--paying an extra 1 SB for a second card--is not much of an achievement compared to just folding the turn when I miss. But if I make my hand on the turn I want SB to bet again and trap the third player. That has real value and I don't have to pay extra for it.

2. It is possible that I am ahead here. Not likely enough to warrant paying for a showdown, but possible. The way to exploit this chance is to call and wait for the turn to check to me. Then I can switch gears and start betting the likely best hand.

Both of these reasons share a common underpinning. I played this hand because I have the button. That's very powerful in a 3-way pot and calling retains all of that power. The free card play doesn't just cost 1 SB. It also trades away the other powers of the button.